Belgian man adopts U.S. soldier's grave, gives family details they never knew

Lander Allaert takes a photo by Sgt. Emmett P. Clark's grave, which he adopted, at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Hombourg, Belgium.

Lander Allaert

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Lander Allaert takes a photo by Sgt. Emmett P. Clark's grave, which he adopted, at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Hombourg, Belgium.

Lander Allaert

I knew my great uncle, Emmett P. Clark, died in the Battle of the Bulge, one of the last major campaigns on the Western Front of World War II. I knew he was a brave soldier who gave his life for a greater cause. I knew he was my uncle's namesake. But that was about all I knew until the spring of 2012, when a curious young man from Belgium sent my family a letter that brought my great uncle into my life.

The letter was from Lander Allaert, 19, of Wijnegem, Belgium, who adopted my great uncle's grave and began researching his life. My curiosity was immediately sparked: Who was this teen? Why had he felt the need to adopt Emmett's grave? How was that possible? And what didn't we know about the slain hero in our family tree?

Through my family's own recent requests to the National Archives, I now know that, at the age of 23, Emmett enlisted in the National Guard on Sept. 30, 1940, about a year after World War II began. He was part of the 112th Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division, where he eventually became a sergeant.

Emmett was in the hilly, snow-covered Ardennes region of Belgium in December 1944 when the Battle of the Bulge -- a 41-day, bloody counteroffensive to Hitler’s surprise attack on exhausted American troops -- began. It's where his life eventually ended, and coincidentally, where the story of our unlikely friendship with Allaert began.

Budding historian gets his start

Allaert's interest in WWII was sparked as a child when he and his family would vacation in the Belgian Ardennes at a town called Ouren, a strategic spot during the war. He used to play on pillboxes built by German soldiers along the famous German Siegfried Line, as well as in foxholes that the American soldiers had dug nearly 50 years before.

At that young age, Allaert said he didn't understand their sentiment, but after years of his grandfather telling him stories about the Battle of the Bulge, he began walking the foxholes again, eventually finding his first relic -- a gun cartridge. From there, he bought his first metal detector and began doing research, discovering that the 112th Infantry Regiment fought in Ouren during the first few days of the battle.

Eight years after buying that metal detector, Allaert owns five more, along with a showcase full of war artifacts (See some below. Story continues after).

Allaert said he found out online that it was possible to adopt a grave from the 112th at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery and Memorial in Hombourg, Belgium, where my great uncle is buried alongside nearly 8,000 other war heroes. Unlike fallen soldiers nowadays, their bodies never made it home and were instead enshrined at this serene spot where, every Memorial Day, a massive ceremony is held in remembrance of their sacrifices.

Through that information, Allaert was able to get the address of my 93-year-old Great Aunt Marty -- Emmett's youngest sister. He wrote her, and after the letter was forwarded to the rest of the family, my mother and I wrote back. Allaert said he was surprised because he didn't expect to actually hear from anyone.

Over the past year, we've corresponded many times. Allaert has sent my mother information we never knew from the Pennsylvania and National Archives, as well as slideshows of pictures he's taken of the memorial and its Memorial Day ceremony. He also sent my mother a shadow box full of relics he found in that Ouren field, along with descriptions of each item (see slideshow).

"I am thankful to your family for listening to my story and the story of your great uncle. He did great things and gave his life for our freedom," Allaert told me via email.

The research and collecting are just hobbies of the now-20-year-old interior design student. When asked why he wanted to do all of this, his answer was simple.

"Sixty-eight years ago, some young guys fought in a war -- not even their war. They gave everything for our freedom. Those guys may never be forgotten. They are our heroes -- my heroes," he said.

What I’ve learned from Allaert

On Jan. 7, 1945, more than three weeks into the Battle of the Bulge, my Great Uncle Emmett was fatally wounded by enemy fire. He died at the age of 27 and posthumously received the Purple Heart for his sacrifice.

If it weren’t for a stranger’s interest in preserving that history, I would have never taken the time to know that.

Some might say they wouldn't want to know the facts of their relatives' deaths in war, but for me, knowing that connects me to his legacy and to that of all the men and women who fought in a war that defined a generation as America's greatest.

It is stories like these that remind us that history is powerful. Through its successes and failures, history unites us all in remembrance and understanding. Many men and women gave their lives in World War II, in wars before it and in wars after. Their sacrifices gave us our present and our future, and for that, their legacies must carry on.

On this Memorial Day weekend, enjoy your picnics, your beach time and your family, but also be sure to say a prayer and a quiet thank you to those men and women we've lost -- the ones who gave their lives so ours, someday down the road, could be better.